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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (288585)	5/21/2006 8:43:35 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573835

Re: Poles moving into Belgium....want the official Belgian language to be Polish.........your reaction. Well, American, British and Japanese "expats" have also moved into Belgium and the consequence is that English has become a de facto official language of corporate Belgium... Belgian politicians too feel they must know a modicum of English --just remember the "Francorchamps Formula One Grand Prix" affair that led Walloon (French-speaking) politicians to travel to London to renegotiate a contract (in English) with Bernie Ecclestone....() And that's because English has become the lingua franca for the world. As for Poles demanding that Polish be an official language in Belgium, I believe it quite unlikely. All EU citizens perfectly realize that the EU's 15 languages can't be spoken and written by all the EU peoples. Of course, its unlikely........that's why I asked the question. Hence it will always be up to the newcomers to adapt and learn the local language to deal in official matters, at least.* Of course, that is the norm. However its not happening with the illegals. There is enough of them so that they don't bother esp. because they plan to go back home. When it comes to private or commercial matters, however, people everywhere in Europe can use their native languages --satellite TV-channels, restaurants, advertising, religion (Brussels' Poles have their own church and masses in Polish), etc. Of course, that's the norm here as well......in private and within their own restaurants etc. But I am talking about in the business world. They make little effort to learn English. Hence, its very difficult to talk to illegals because they know no English. In areas where they are concentrated, Americans make an attempt to learn Spanish; hence the comedy Spanglish. Most illegals know a few words of English; some Americans know a few words of Spanish.